Ford Fiesta Active review

It’s a Fiesta, basically, with all the four-and-a-half-star goodness that entails — only, in this Active form, it rides 18mm higher and has a bit of cladding around the outside to make it look more rufty-tufty. Like a jelly baby wearing walking boots. Suspension is modified to suit and the tracks are 10mm wider and tyre profiles tend to be a little higher.

Tick the right boxes and there’s a more hard-wearing interior fabric. There’s no four-wheel drive option, there are drive modes that change the stability programme not to give you grip where none exists but to allow a bit more slip on gravelly tracks. You can have a 1.0-litre triple petrol or 1.5-litre diesel engine.

How does the Active differ from the regular Fiesta?

It's taller. But only by the width of your thumb.

Which is, truth be told, only as much taller as you’d want a Fiesta to be, because it gives you the confidence to just drop off a road onto a gravelly lay-by or a bumpy bit of asphalt without you having to worry about smacking the chassis onto the ground.

There’s a sense of security and imperviousness to a proper 4x4, which the Active doesn’t quite replicate, obviously, but it gets you a small part of the way there: to a puddle and pothole-strewn car park from where you walk the dogs or, if your lifestyle replicates the advertising campaigns, go kitesurfing or mountain biking. Or it just makes it easier to get in and out in the GP surgery car park (a scenario that mysteriously never makes the brochures).

Anyway, it doesn’t affect the Fiesta’s dynamics overtly. The ride is a bit more gently loping than the regular car’s, but it still steers accurately and responsively, and corners as pleasingly as any other car in the class. Dynamically, it’s better with the 1.0 petrol engine than the 1.5 diesel — quieter, too — because there’s less weight in the nose.

We tried the 138bhp petrol version, which is sprightly, but it can be had for 84bhp; but I reckon you’d want the 98bhp version or higher to make respectable progress (the 0-62mph time falls from 12.7sec to 11.0sec). This 138bhp variant has a claimed 9.4sec 0-62mph time and whizzes along easily. There’s appeal to the torque of the 118bhp diesel, but it feels heavier, less agile and transmits a bit of zing into the body.

Ford offers a choice of three variants: the entry-level Active 1, uprated Active B&O Play and fully-loaded Active X. The differences are largely found inside, with the Active 1 using a 6.5in touchscreen infotainment system, the ste-up B&O Play model adding premium speakers and an 8in touchscreen, and the Active X adding heated door mirrors and a rear view camera pack as standard.

If you only need a little extra clearance and stick the right tyres on it, then — like, say, the Peugeot 2008 — it’ll get you out of low-grip places, even though it can’t be had with a four-wheel drive system that would be burdensome to carry around most of the time.

And all the while it’s just a Fiesta, meaning it’s good to drive, has a decent interior, good ergonomics and, these days, even an easy-to-use infotainment system. Active models start at around £18,000, while our test car was £21,000. It feels like a useful niche and I can see the appeal.